A man facing charges in several active criminal cases appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Thirty-year-old Steven Gauger changed his plea to guilty to the charges against him and was put on probation for six years. It was also announced that Gauger had paid restitution to the victims or that stolen goods had been returned to victims.
He faced a number of charges, including breaking or entering, theft of property, criminal trespass and criminal mischief. Many of the charges carried multiple counts.
Investigators checking into numerous reports were able to put Gauger in the middle of a series of break-ins and thefts.
Gauger was arrested in January last year after the Baxter County Sheriff’s Office received a “suspicious person” call from an address along County Road 467.
The caller reported a man in a silver van came to his residence “acting strange,” and the caller provided the van’s license plate number.
A deputy sheriff responded to the initial call and, while he was still in the area, received another report of a person in a silver van at an address along County Road 37.
The resident at the second home told the deputy a man had approached him about buying firewood. The homeowner said he declined and the person left.
The victim went inside the house for a short time and, when he returned outside, he saw two chainsaws were missing from his front porch. The saws had an estimated value of almost $700, according to the probable cause affidavit.
When a check of the license plate was made, the vehicle was reported to belong to a member of Gauger’s family. A photo of Gauger was shown to the two people who had made the suspicious persons reports and they both identified him as the man they had encountered.
A deputy went to Gauger’s known residence along Maple Leaf Trail. He was reported to be living in a camper trailer parked on property owned by another person.
The deputy located Gauger and the silver van at the camper trailer. Gauger was questioned about several recent thefts, including the two chainsaws that were missing from the front porch of one of the suspicious persons callers. He claimed not to know anything about the saws.
But, Gauger’s story began to unravel when the deputy saw a canoe and a flat bottom boat on the property matching the description of items reported stolen from an address along County Road 36.
When Gauger was asked about the watercraft, he said he needed to speak to an attorney.
The victim of the canoe and flat bottom boat theft told investigators his family’s home had been lost to fire, and he had been going to the site to retrieve property. During those trips, he had discovered the canoe, flat bottom boat, tools and other items missing from the yard of the burned-out home and two storage sheds located on the property.
A man described as a “known associate” of Gauger’s, 35-year-old Joshua Carson, was also arrested and charged with aiding Gauger. His case is still open, according to electronic court records.
In the various theft cases, Gauger is accused of stealing chain saws, a canoe, tools, ladders, a pressure washer, utility trailer, paddle boat, a set of vintage metal lawn chairs, concrete frog lawn ornament, a propane tank, antique horse drawn plow, a motorcycle, automobile parts and a single boat paddle.
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